SANTA ROSA / 3 years for official who poached abalone

A Santa Cruz man who used to serve on the state's abalone advisory committee has been sentenced to three years in prison for poaching the expensive mollusks.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Elliot Daum on Thursday sentenced Joel Roberts, 39, to the three-year sentence after he pleaded no contest to felony conspiracy charges to harvest abalone commercially.

He and John Funkey, 29, of Capitola were accused of illegally harvesting 130 red abalone worth $5,000 in December 2000. The men were arrested after they were seen poaching off the Sonoma County coast. At the time of their arrest, the daily sport bag limit was four abalone per diver.